2 College Visits in 2 Weekends!

 Evan and I have visited 2 colleges these past 2 Fridays in a row. With Ian being so resistant to going to any college and Alec ONLY wanting to look at culinary colleges (the whole 2 we found) this is the first time we've really had to put a lot of effort into finding just the right fit for a college for one of our boys. 

Since Evan hopes to study psychology his field of study does not narrow down our choices much. I did limit him to staying within New England/New York (basically within a day's drive) to make it a bit easier on all of us and since in his words he's "only ever had a classroom of 1-3 students, a small school would be best."  I am LOVING all the tours so much. Each school is brimming with their own possibilities.

Friday August we checked out Bryant University and were surprised by how much we both liked it. It's nice and small and all the staff we met were so nice! They had tons of construction going on and seem to constantly update everything-- even the freshman dorms were just redone in the past year or two with new bathrooms and central air added. So many colleges in New England do not have air conditioning in their dorms. It never really was an issue when I was in college as our falls and springs were much cooler then (or maybe we were just more used to being hot as hardly anyone had air conditioning?). 

 The photos loaded in reverse but whatever. They had this huge tent set up for our lunches since their cafeteria is undergoing a HUGE renovation this summer (the photos of what it should look like upon completion are amazing). We enjoyed some New England frozen lemonade-- it's a real Rhode Island "thing" that we don't have in Connecticut.

This giant new building was just donated to the school and all the new classrooms and learning spaces are state of the art. 

 

Another one of their classroom buildings has this neat domed meeting space in the center since all classes have a 20 minute break in between. 

Bryant was originally in Providence and when they moved they brought this famous/original gate with them to their new campus. 

 

They have this beautiful fountain right in the center of their campus. 

I don't remember what this building was... but we really liked the campus a lot. 

This past Friday we headed out to Dean College. Sadly, I don't think Dean is going to make the cut. It wasn't a true open house so there were only about a dozen of us (parents and students included) and there wasn't any opportunity to talk with any professors or get a feel for what the psychology program was like.

I'm realizing that, so far, all of Evan's favorites are open houses where he really connected with the professors from "his" department. Their passion sparking his even more so I think that was hard for him that we mostly just sat and listened and then took a quick walking tour of the campus. 

the dorm we got to see

their quad was beautiful! 

this tiny room holds all their trophies now but was the original dining hall back when they first opened. It used to have a divider in the middle with girls on one side and guys on the other; they were allowed to meet and mingle in the middle for only 30 minutes after dining. 

one of their main classroom buildings

We've talked about possibly touring one more college in September (another small/local one) but we'll see. Right now he has 2 he really likes a lot and a third he likes enough to apply to as well but I do enjoy these college tours. I wish more colleges offered shadow days; Alec did that at JWU and it really helped him get a better feel for the program and helped him really see himself on campus.

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